Monthly Archives: September 2010

Life is funny sometimes. As a teenager, all I wanted to do was fit in. I wanted the Girbaud jeans and the Esprit bag. I wanted my hair to look like all the other girls. (This where my Mom pipes up and tells the story about how I wouldn’t go to school one day because my bangs were not ‘tall’ enough.) I wanted to blend in with the crowd. As an adult, I have discovered that I don’t like being like everyone else. If everyone is reading a certain book, I won’t want to. If everyone is following a certain trend, I automatically dismiss it. And, if everyone is watching a TV show and emulating it, I have no desire to do the same. Thus it has been with the “Biggest Loser.”

Yes, I think it’s super awesome that everyone is inspired to lose weight by sitting on their backsides watching TV. Ironic, but awesome. But, I really have no desire to watch it. Or join in the craziness. Apparently my family does, however, and we have begun our own “Biggest Loser” contest. So, for this once, I will forgo my desire to be different and join in the trend.

We have 7 adults (at last count) and 8 weeks . . . and I’m gonna win. Do you know why? Because I’m competitive. I have wanted to lose weight forever. And, I’ve tried over and over and over. I normally last 2 or 3 days before I give up on eating healthy and welcome the Snickers bars back in to my life. But, add a little competition in? I have been under my calories every day. I’ve exercised 4 times. I bought FAT FREE Miracle Whip and Ranch Dressing – both of which I abhor. And, I even ate some of the Miracle Whip today at lunch! The only chocolate I’ve had is Mini 3 Musketeers – coming in at a whopping 24 calories each. I’ve completely changed my recipes, and we’re now eating healthy every day. (Although, funny story – Adam asked me yesterday if our ‘week’ of eating healthy was over yet. You should have seen his face when I told him we’re eating healthy FOREVER!) I’ve even put aside my crippling fear of looking stupid and falling on the floor to actually RUN on the treadmill at the gym – TWICE. So, the rest of my family had better watch out cause I’m coming to play.

I don’t get baseball. They play entirely too many games. And said games are entirely too long. And it’s played in the summer . . . outside. Whose brilliant idea was that? I think I might like baseball if they played less than 4 million games, it was only 5 innings, and they played in the winter. How much fun would snow baseball be? But, that being said, I really enjoy it when my boys play.

Saturday began the ritual known affectionately as “fall ball.” Robbie is playing for the Braves in the Minors now (where they actually have the kids pitching – that’s fun and entertaining!), and Adam is on the Cubs in Coach Pitch I. They both looked adorable in their uniforms – but don’t tell them that.

One of the things I love most about kids baseball is people watching at the games. We’ve played enough times that I’m starting to see the same types of people every year.

First, there’s the Bleacher Coach. I’ve discovered this person is normally a woman, and normally married to one of the ‘coaches’. She’ll yell tips to all the kids, not just her own. “Make him throw to you.” “Keep your eye on the ball.” “Get your elbow up.” Some of them are nice, some of them are mean. But, there’s always at least one.

Then, we have the My-Kid-Is-The-Best-Baseball-Player-In-The-World Parent. You know this one. He yells at his kid to get all the balls on the field because no one else could possibly be any good. He insists that his kid play pitcher, or 1st base, or whatever he deems is the most important position on the field.

Then we have the Obnoxious Yeller. This one needs no explanation, and I think it might be my least favorite. I want to go up and whap them on the head and try and get the fact that these are KIDS through their head.

The coaches themselves can usually even be divided up. There’s Coach Meanie- the one who looks mean, but is actually really nice. Then there’s Coach Clueless – the one who is trying to figure out what the white thing is that the kids are throwing to each other. And there’s almost always a Coach Biker on the team – you know the guy who looks like he could take you (and anyone else in a 10 yard radius) in a bar fight.

So, baseball may be entirely too long and entirely too hot, but at least I get to people watch, right?!?

As I was working on something with Emily at the kitchen table this afternoon, Adam came down and asked, “Emily, did you make me wear a dress when I was little?” Um, okay, Adam – King of Random. Emily looked at him like he was crazy and said, “No!”

Ahem, do you not remember this?

Do you know my favorite part of the picture? The come-hither look that Adam is sporting! He’s such a pretty, pretty princess. When Adam saw this picture he informed Emily, “You are so dead!” I didn’t know what he had planned, but somehow, I don’t think this is nearly as humiliating:

I think it’s a little disturbing that my 8-year old can fit into her 6-year old brother’s clothes. 🙂

I can see we’re going to have years and years of use for that picture of Adam. Wedding perhaps? Eagle Court of Honor? Oooh, the possibilities are endless . . .

I haven’t blogged about Disney World. I don’t know how to. How do you condense a week of memories and a million pictures into one readable post? I don’t think you can. Besides, a lot of you have already seen the pictures on Facebook.

So, I’m gonna cheat. I had already created a book so that we could remember our trip. And, I can post a link. So, if you really want to know about our trip to Disney World with all the nitty, gritty details, feel free to look.

If you don’t want to browse through my 42-page book (and I won’t be offended if you don’t), I can sum up our week for you in one word – MAGICAL!

(I was gonna embed it, but apparently WordPress won’t allow me to, so you just get a link! Sorry! Make sure you view it in the one-page view and full screen or it looks miniature!)

So, remember way back when (at the beginning of August) that I mentioned a 3rd road trip we took in July? Do you remember how I never wrote about it? Yeah, it’s probably about time I did it.

About a year ago, the leaders at church decided that our youth needed a “spiritual kick in the pants”. (Love that term!) After some thought and discussion, it was decided that we would take our youth to Nauvoo this summer. They planned and talked and had meetings (lots and lots of meetings with lots and lots of talking). Monday, July 19th at 4:30 a.m., 11 young women, 6 young men and 10 adult leaders gathered at the church to begin our journey.

Here’s a day by day breakdown of the trip!

Monday – Mostly a day of travel. We drove about 10 hours to Independence, Missouri to see the Independence Visitor’s Center, and then camped for the night at a beautiful (but, really hot) campground just north of Independence.

Since we were at the Independence Visitor’s Center, I had to go find my light pole at the Independence Stake Center next door. (My Grandpa was helping build the stake center when I was born and inscribed my name and birthday on the light pole! I feel famous!)

Tuesday – Tuesday morning we saw Liberty Jail. It was amazing to watch the youth and see how the spirit of the jail affected them. The feeling of reverence and calm was almost palpable. Many of the youth said it was one of their favorite places we went. After Liberty Jail, we had lunch at CiCi’s pizza (nothing but the best for our youth!), and drove to Nauvoo.

The walls of the jail were so thick that you couldn’t reach the other side. Jon tried . . . and couldn’t do it!

Wednesday – We spent the day Wednesday in Nauvoo. We saw the visitor’s center, the Browning gun shop, the blacksmith, the Red Brick store & the Smith family cemetery. That night we went and saw the Nauvoo Pageant. Before the pageant, they had old-fashioned family games. The youth loved it!

Youth getting ready for the “Youth vs. Adults” tug of war. And who won?!? Oh, that’s right – the adults did!

Thursday – Thursday saw us in Nauvoo for the second day. We went on a wagon ride to get an overview of the city, saw the Family Life Center and visited the brickyard. That afternoon we got ready to go to the temple to do baptisms. That was probably the highlight of the trip for me. The Nauvoo temple is so beautiful, and it was incredibly peaceful there.

Love Sister Munafo!

Friday – Friday began our trip home. We stopped at Carthage Jail, which was another of the youth’s favorite places. We did wear out the youth during the week – one of the young men fell asleep in the movie and didn’t leave when we did. Thankfully we found him, and I didn’t have to explain to his mother why we lost her son.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We stopped at Adam-Ondi-Ahman. 2 of the 3 cars got pulled over for speeding in Missouri – but didn’t get tickets, thankfully. We crammed into hotel rooms outside of Kansas City. We got home – tired & sore with tons of mosquito bites and even more memories.

It was a hard week, but completely worth it to see the change in some of the youth. One of our young men began the week whining – he was tired, he was hungry, he wanted to go home. As the week went on, the whining became less and less. On Thursday night, I turned around to see this young man reading his scriptures. Tears literally came to my eyes as I witnessed the mighty change of heart among these kids. I can’t wait to take my own kids when they are a little older!